February 11, 2021

Charity Space Memorabilia Auction Planned on Feb. 20 (Source: American Space Museum)
The American Space Museum Charity Space Memorabilia Auction #14 will be held virtually on Saturday, Feb. 20 beginning at 12 pm noon EST. The auction includes 350 lots of astronaut autographs, space-flown items and historic badges and photographs—deemed authentic by the museum’s professional memorabilia analyst. Register ahead of time, and be ready to start live bidding. It is a beautiful way to support our non-profit that has been preserving space history for 20 years. Click here. (2/10)

NASA Removes Europa Clipper From SLS Manifest (Source: Space News)
NASA confirmed that it no longer plans to launch its Europa Clipper mission on the Space Launch System. At a meeting of an advisory group Wednesday, project officials said they were informed by the agency last month to "immediately cease efforts to maintain SLS compatibility" and instead prepare to launch the mission on a commercial rocket. Congress had mandated for years in appropriations bills that NASA use SLS, but relented in the fiscal year 2021 bill. NASA intends to issue a request for proposals for launch services for Europa Clipper next month, with plans to launch the mission in October 2024. (2/11)

DoD Transitioning to New Model for Space Systems, Away From 'Exquisite Satellites' (Source: Space News)
The U.S. military is working to transition to a new model of space systems that takes advantage of emerging technologies. Steve Butow, director of the Defense Innovation Unit's space portfolio, said the "20th century model" of exquisite satellites that operate for decades is no longer valid, and that the government needs to shift to a new approach characterized by modular systems using commoditized satellite buses and components that can be periodically upgraded. Butow and other experts said a key challenge in creating a broad market ecosystem is agreeing on standard interfaces for space hardware so the entire space economy could buy from the same marketplace. (2/11)

Artemis 1 SLS Booster Stacking Nearing Completion at Florida Spaceport (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
The stacking of the twin solid rocket boosters for NASA’s Space Launch System is nearly complete with only one set of segments remaining. Engineers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida have been assembling the twin 170-story-tall, five-segment boosters since early January. These boosters will provide the bulk of the thrust for the SLS rocket during its first two minutes of flight. Currently, the agency is hoping to launch Artemis 1 as early as November 2021. A second flight, this time with a crewed Orion, is slated for 2023. (2/11)

Analytical Space Wins Air Force Contract for Optical Communications (Source: Space News)
Analytical Space Inc. won a $26.4 million contract to begin developing an optical communications network. The three-year contract was awarded by AF Ventures, the Air Force's venture arm, with funding from the U.S. Space Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) and the Air Force Research Laboratory as part of the Air Force Strategic Financing program. The contract funds work to develop and launch six cubesats and two hosted payloads for the company's Fast Pixel Network, which relays data from geospatial intelligence satellites to military, intelligence and commercial customers, using optical intersatellite links. (2/11)

Alpha Insights Acquires Urthecast Assets (Source: Space News)
A startup is acquiring assets from remote sensing company Urthecast to establish a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite system. Alpha Insights purchased the SAR assets of Urthecast, which filed for protection from creditors in 2020 to avoid bankruptcy. Scott Larson, a co-founder of Urthecast and CEO of Alpha Insights, says his new company is working on a dual-band SAR system based on technology Urthecast developed. Alpha Insights recently raised a seed round to allow it to expand its engineering staff. (2/11)

Smallsat Successes Driving Broader Innovation and Risk Taking (Source: Space News)
The success of smallsats is pushing the broader space industry to take more risks. Jim McClelland, vice president of mission architecture at Maxar Technologies, said at the SmallSat Symposium Wednesday that the industry is benefiting from "clever designs and cutting edge technologies" from the smallsat field. Maxar CEO Daniel Jablonsky said at a separate event Wednesday that it wants to offer government customers commercially developed products and services at fixed prices, rather than have the government pay it to develop custom products. (2/11)
 
Virgin Orbit Could Move Into 'Adjacent Markets' (Source: Space News)
Virgin Orbit's leaders say the launch company is interested in moving into adjacent markets. In a keynote at the SmallSat Symposium Wednesday, Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart and Virgin founder Richard Branson said there's been a lot of interest in the company's capabilities since its successful LauncherOne launch last month. Hart said Virgin Orbit has a "pretty expansive evolution" planned, which could include partnerships like the investment made into Sky and Space Global, a constellation startup, last year. (2/11)

Virgin Galactic Shares Fall After Analyst Downgrade (Source: MarketWatch)
Shares in Virgin Galactic fell Wednesday after an analyst downgrade. UBS downgraded the stock from "buy" to "neutral," and shares closed down 7.6% in trading. UBS said that the recent "stratospheric move" in Virgin Galactic's stock price in recent weeks prompted the downgrade, since the rise was not tied to any change in the fundamentals of the company. (2/11)

New Zealand Politicians Oppose Rocket Lab Launches of US Military Payloads (Source: NewsTalk ZB)
Some New Zealand politicians are unhappy the next Rocket Lab launch will carry a U.S. military satellite. One of the payloads on that mission is a small cubesat for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command. An official with New Zealand's Green Party said the country shouldn't be launching satellites "that contribute to nuclear weapons programs or capabilities." The cubesat is a technology demonstration only, and Rocket Lab says it launches only research satellites, not operational ones, from its New Zealand site. (2/11)

Saudi Arabia Considers Moon and Mars Missions (Source: Asharq Al-Awsat)
The government of Saudi Arabia is considering proposals for missions to the moon and Mars. The Saudi Space Commission said it is reviewing concepts for "exploratory missions" to those worlds, but offered few other details. The commission is also working with the country's Public Investment Fund on an effort to encourage investment in the space industry, with an announcement on those plans expected in a few weeks. (2/11)

House Committee OKs Payroll Aid for Aerospace Industry (Source: Reuters)
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has approved $42.5 billion in support for the US transportation sector, including $3 billion for aerospace manufacturing payrolls. This financial support is part of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. (2/10)

NASA Launches Solicitation for Follow-On Systems Engineering Contract (Source: GovCon Wire)
NASA has issued a request for proposals for the second iteration of the Systems Engineering Advanced Services contract with a maximum ordering value of $298 million. SEAS II will involve engineering mission and instrument systems for various NASA facilities such as the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, the agency said in the solicitation notice posted Monday. Interested parties can submit proposals through March 11. (2/10)

Sierra Nevada Delivers Lunar Prototype Lunar Crew Module (Source: Space Daily)
Sierra Nevada Corp. delivered a prototype crew module for Dynetics' Human Landing System (DHLS), to NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC). Dynetics is a wholly owned subsidiary of Leidos. SNC is responsible for providing key technologies and system integration of the crew module as part of the Dynetics-led HLS team. If the Dynetics-led team is selected to continue development of their human landing system for NASA's Artemis program, the SNC crew module could transport the first woman and next man to the lunar surface. (2/10)

Embry-Riddle Alumna Helps Unravel Key Mysteries of Rare Stars (Source: Space Daily)
Within the constellation Cygnus, an elderly star and its massive companion are having one last hurrah, flinging off mass at an incredible rate before they explode as supernovae and collapse into a black hole. Now, researchers including recent Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University graduate Laura M. Lee have mapped the elderly star's orbit around its oversized and equally ancient partner. In a scientific first, they have also determined the dynamical mass of both stars that make up a binary system called Wolf-Rayet 133. (2/10)

Pollution Could Be One Way to Find an Extraterrestrial Civilization (Source: Space Daily)
If there's an advanced extraterrestrial civilization inhabiting a nearby star system, we might be able to detect it using its own atmospheric pollution, according to new NASA research. The study looked at the presence of nitrogen dioxide gas (NO2), which on Earth is produced by burning fossil fuels but can also come from non-industrial sources such as biology, lightning, and volcanoes. (2/11)

NASA Wants to Set a New Radiation Limit for Astronauts (Source: WIRED)
On Earth, humans are exposed to 3 to 4 millisieverts (mSv) of radiation a year, mostly from natural sources like some kinds of rocks and the few cosmic rays that get through the atmosphere. On the International Space Station, astronauts get about 300 mSv per year. Until now, a 55-year-old male NASA astronaut was limited to an effective dose of 400 mSv over his career, while a 35-year-old female astronaut could only be exposed to 120 mSv.

Now that NASA is planning to send people on much longer missions, the agency is considering raising that threshold to 600 mSv for astronauts of any gender or age. Under the existing standard, some veteran astronauts might have been excluded from longer-term space missions because they are bumping up against lifetime radiation limits. Younger astronauts have less flying time in space and hence less exposure, but the success of a big mission might require experience over youth. (2/11)